Yorkers are the fast bowler’s most powerful weapon. You feel like you have got one over on the batsman when you duck one in onto his toes in front of middle stump. Even when it doesn’t get the wicket, it’s impossible to score.

But the yorker target area is small and even a slight error makes your toe-crusher an easy full-toss or half-volley.

You have to practice smart.

Like a darts player aiming for the treble twenty; you have to be relentless in your question to have a yorker you can be proud of. You can see how effective it is just by watching the IPL career of Lasith Malinga.

Here’s a killer drill you can use.

PitchVision yorker drill

You will need:

• An empty net (no batsmen)
• Stumps
• Balls
• A PitchVision Solo or higher sensor set

Position the Pitch Sensor right up to the base of the stump.

Do this by correctly aligning the pitch sensor with the stumps then calibrating the pitch length in the venue setting to “User defined”.

Once this is done you can forget about the sensor and just aim your yorkers at the crease as normal. PitchVision will track your accuracy. Here are some yorker technical tips.

Your age will define how much you bowl at yorker practice. It’s important to bowl as much as you can without over-bowling as this increases injury risk. Here are the guidelines for you:

• 10-13 year olds: 12 yorkers per day
• 14-15 year olds: 14 yorkers per day
• 16+ year olds: 22 yorkers per day

As you can see, this is not a lot of practice - the other 80% of practice time should be dedicated to getting your stock ball right - so you need to track how this performance changes over time.

PitchVision tracks this efficiently as you can see from the screen shot from the PitchVision laptop below that shows 2 sample sessions:

This is the principle of deliberate practice in action, and should be the cornerstone of all your practice if you are dedicated to personal development as a bowler.

You will quickly see improvements in accuracy that will develop your confidence to use to yorker in matches to blow away the opposition.